Air gun with rotary magazine

Abstract

The body 12 of an air gun accommodates a removable magazine 16 immediately behind the breech 14, for pellets to be loaded one at a time from the magazine into the breech. The magazine comprises a drum 33 which is rotatably mounted within a housing 31 and comprises ten pellet-holding slots 38 around its axis. A torsion spring 42 urges rotation of the drum in indexing steps as controlled by an escapement mechanism comprising a rocking pawl 50. The pawl is displaced against the action of a return spring 58 by a plunger 60 which projects from a cocking arm 22 of a conventional cocking mechanism of the gun; the plunger is arranged to actuate the escapement only towards the end of a cocking stroke of the arm 22. A loading ram/air transfer tube 28 is reciprocated, in effecting the cocking action, to withdraw from one slot 38 in the drum and enter a next slot to load a fresh pellet into the breech.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An air gun comprising an exchangeable magazine arranged to hold a plurality of pellets for loading one at a time into a breech of the gun, the magazine comprising: (a) a carrier located in the gun adjacent to the breech;   (b) a drum which is rotatably mounted on the carrier and presents a plurality of pellet-holding slots distributed around its rotational axis;   (c) a drive spring acting between the drum and the carrier to rotate the drum to bring the slots successively into alignment with the breech for insertion of pellets into the breech; and   (d) an escapement mechanism acting between the drum and the carrier to arrest rotation of the drum by the drive spring and operable intermittently to release the drum for rotation in indexing steps; and the gun comprising also: (i) a reciprocable loading ram adapted to be driven longitudinally into an aligned one of said slots in the drum to drive a pellet from the drum and into the breech;   (ii) escapement-actuating means; and   (iii) cocking mechanism operable in a cocking action to cock the gun for firing and being operatively associated with said loading ram for causing reciprocating of the ram and being operatively associated with said escapement-actuating means for causing operation of said escapement mechanism subsequently in the cocking action to withdrawal of the loading ram from the drum.     
     
     
       2. An air gun according to claim 1 in which in operation of the cocking mechanism the gun becomes fully cocked not later than the stage at which the escapement mechanism becomes actuated. 
     
     
       3. An air gun according to claim 1 in which actuation of the escapement mechanism from the clocking mechanism is by means of an operating plunger which projects from a pivotable cocking arm of the cocking mechanism. 
     
     
       4. An air gun according to claim 1 in which actuation of the escapement mechanism from the cocking mechanism is by means of electrical contacts which become closed by a pivotable cocking arm of the cocking mechanism to cause operation of a solenoid-operated device. 
     
     
       5. An air gun according to claim 1 in which the escapement mechanism comprises a rocking pawl which in each complete oscillation permits rotation of the drum by one indexing step. 
     
     
       6. An air gun according to claim 5 in which the pawl is spring-biased in one direction of pivotal movement and arranged to be deflected against the action of the spring by the escapement-actuating means.